Would there be any issues with titling the actual book “How to actually change your mind”?
It’s catchy, it covers a lot of why someone might find the book interesting, and it’s not that unusual for a book to have a chapter name identical to the title (or just rename that chapter, or break it down by sub-sequence instead)
I think this title sounds better if you are already familiar with the sequences. The importance and difficulty of changing your mind are not likely to be appreciated by people outside this community.
While I suspect you are correct, I also suspect that the audience for this book would probably be significantly more aware of it as a problem. This isn’t a mainstream book, it’s just a more accessible version of the sequences, so the target audience is going to be less “random Joe” and more “aspiring rationalist / potential LessWrong reader”.
Speaking to my social circle alone, any of my friends who weren’t curious about a book like that would probably also struggle with the material.
For some reason, it also strikes me as signalling “I am not a peppy self-help ‘you can do anything!’ book”, which seems like a very useful property in a title. I have no clue if that’s just me though :)
Would there be any issues with titling the actual book “How to actually change your mind”?
It’s catchy, it covers a lot of why someone might find the book interesting, and it’s not that unusual for a book to have a chapter name identical to the title (or just rename that chapter, or break it down by sub-sequence instead)
I think this title sounds better if you are already familiar with the sequences. The importance and difficulty of changing your mind are not likely to be appreciated by people outside this community.
While I suspect you are correct, I also suspect that the audience for this book would probably be significantly more aware of it as a problem. This isn’t a mainstream book, it’s just a more accessible version of the sequences, so the target audience is going to be less “random Joe” and more “aspiring rationalist / potential LessWrong reader”.
Speaking to my social circle alone, any of my friends who weren’t curious about a book like that would probably also struggle with the material.
For some reason, it also strikes me as signalling “I am not a peppy self-help ‘you can do anything!’ book”, which seems like a very useful property in a title. I have no clue if that’s just me though :)